Monday, November 23, 2009

Mother Edie

The latest storyline in 9 Chickweed Lane (aka The Horniest Strip In Print) has to do with Grandma Edie retelling the tale of how she aided the war effort. In today's episode, a mysterious officer recruits Edie to become a singer for the Reich under deep cover.

That story sure does sound familiar. Like maybe Howard W. Campbell Jr. in Mother Night. Methinks somebody owes Kurt Vonnegut some royalties. Or at least a shout-out.

Update: Brooke McEldowney confesses to an inexplicable (at least to me) ignorance of the works of Kurt Vonnegut:

I've never read any of Kurt Vonnegut's novels; and now I know I shouldn't until I've finished this tale. Thanks for warning me off.

Well, if he hasn't read them, he should. Just as soon as he finishes this story line.

Well, I don't think Brooke is going to go quite as far as Vonnegut did with inserting Edie into the Nazi hierarchy. She's just going to do a little singing and a lot of vamping. No one is going to think she was actually a Nazi. After all, we have seen a "photo" of her in a cheesecake pose in Eisenhower's arms. Also, I believe the "mysterious officer" is, in fact, Juliet's future father, so Josh shouldn't expect too much "sexy sexy sex SEX SEX".

Yeah, Bill is Juliet's father. This arc sort of started out as a how-I-met-your-father story. Of course, there also has to be a lot more between this and when Juliet was born. I mean, she can't really be much more than 50 at the most.

That's the problem with these strips that have a chronologically fixed backstory but don't advance in real time. Look at Crankshaft. For him to have fought in WWII, he would have to be in his early to mid 80s now. Now way a guy that old would still be allowed to drive a school bus. Zits has tried to cover for Walt's Moby Grape shirt by saying his older sister got him hooked on rock in the 60s, but that isn't going to fly for much longer. Heck, a few more years and the information that Jeremy was conceived to Stairway isn't going to be all that plausible.